Partner of the program “Trade Unions’ Green Delegates for Europe 2020 Objectives

Project code: VP/2011/0188

Different traditions govern union activities across the EU, but they share the principles of autonomy, democracy and solidarity towards their own communities. For some unions the main focus is employment-related issues, while others prefer to work through local and national institutions.

This guide is intended to be a useful reference for all European trade unionists who feel the need to intervene or improve their action on environmental issues and, therefore, to increase their skills in this field. It reflects the richness of experiences which can become shared practices.

The guide does not replace the organisational choice of national unions who may have specialist green representatives, specifically trained on environmental issues, or who choose to promote a more general and widely spread environmental culture or orientation in terms of their capacity for action. Each union will define on the basis of its history, traditions, or even in terms of innovation and experimentation, the forms of organisation and the role they consider appropriate and necessary.

Nevertheless, union environmental representatives, however defined, can be the basis of a bottom-up approach to the environmental policies of the EU. They need to understand the impacts of measures for combating climate change on the economy, and they give meaning to the statement that workers can be key agents of this change.

The project was co-financed by European Commission through Budget Line “Labour Relations and Social Dialogue”: 04.03.03.01 VP/2007/001. Subprogramme 3: Improving experiences in the area of labour relations.

All partners with competences in the regional sphere, are parties of the Permanent Conference of the European Capital Cities’ Trade Unions. The project took place between 1st December 2007 and 30th September 2008.

The objectives sought by means of this project are the following:

Understand what telework is and who the teleworkers are. Also, to analyse whether these definitions are unified across the Union countries.

Quantify and/or estimate the magnitude of this phenomenon and its evolution in the last decade: Where is it found? Who does it affect? In what sectors of activity is there a greater presence of it? In which social and professional categories ha it extended the most? And, in any case, integrating a gender perspective.

Analyse the real conditions in which the telework is undertaken, comparing them to the labour conditions of employment undertakings.

Based on the results, prepare a trade union proposal for the regulation of telework through social dialogue.